North Catasauqua Mayor William Molchany Jr. requested that borough's Civil Service Commission advertise and plan a meeting to begin the process of creating a new list of qualified candidates for the position of police officer in the borough police department.

He made the request at the Aug. 26 borough council meeting.

Molchany did not give a reason for his request. The police department is now fully staffed.

When the borough's Civil Service Commission chair Michael Seng asked Molchany why a list is needed, his reply was brief.

"Just in case," he said.

There was an executive session later in the meeting at which an undisclosed personnel issue with borough Police Officer Timothy Varga was discussed.

Varga had earlier appealed a decision by the council to terminate his employment when it was learned he was not residing within the 10-mile radius of the borough, as required.

Council members did not reveal if this was the topic of discussion during the executive session, which is not attended by the press or the public.

Seng said he would discuss activation of the commission with Molchany following the meeting.

The process of advertising, testing and interviewing candidates for a position in the police department takes several months to complete.

Also at the meeting, as finance committee chair, Seng reviewed the process of drafting the 2015 borough budget and gave council committees a timeline for submitting proposed department budgets to borough Treasurer Annette Englert, who was not present at the meeting.

A proposed budget is expected to be drafted by the Nov. 25 council meeting.

Also at the meeting, Councilwoman Michele Hazzard proposed having one non-voting council workshop each month and one voting council meeting, allowing council members time to discuss newly introduced items more thoroughly before voting on them. Currently, council members can vote at both monthly meetings.

"I want to be more informed that when I am making a decision. I am making it with good intentions because it is for the community," she said. She also said she wants to know what other council members views are with a more thorough discussion before making a decision and perhaps have time to do some research.

Keglovits said if council members could only vote on items once a month, he is concerned about ruling out the ability to vote on issues for which a more timely decision is needed.

Seng said limiting the approval of bill payments might cost the borough late payment charges in some cases.

Keglovits favored keeping both meetings as voting meetings.

"If we just want to sit and talk about [an issue], we don't have to vote," he said. "The reason we have two voting meetings is in case we have to vote on something that night."

Nothstein commented on his feeling that sometimes he has felt "forced" to make a quick decision on an issue when a vote is called for only minutes after an issue is brought to the council for the first time.

"We, as council members, have to step up and say, 'I don't want to vote on that tonight'," he said. "I am fine with [having two voting meetings] if we are all on the same page with that."

At the conclusion of the discussion, Hazzard said she was OK with having two voting meetings as long as council members can ask for more information and have time to evaluate it before voting.

Nothstein said more clear direction needs to be given about who should take what steps to provide additional information when asked for, and Keglovits agreed that a better job can be done on this in the future.